


i can be a quick study

by relationshipcrimes



Series: prompt fics 1 [8]
Category: Persona 5
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-29
Updated: 2020-02-29
Packaged: 2021-02-27 18:48:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22950490
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/relationshipcrimes/pseuds/relationshipcrimes
Summary: During Sae's casino, Yusuke and Goro visit the planetarium and talk about......actually, Goro has no idea what they're talking about.
Relationships: Kitagawa Yusuke & Akechi Goro, Kitagawa Yusuke/Akechi Goro (Implied)
Series: prompt fics 1 [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1649317
Comments: 7
Kudos: 219





	i can be a quick study

“Of course I love stargazing,” says Yusuke, in that irritating tone of voice he uses when he seems to effortlessly and flawlessly imply that perfectly normal questions are ridiculous. “They’re beautiful, aren’t they? An interest in beauty is always critical.”

“I suppose beauty would be of great value to an artist,” says Goro with cautious pleasantness.

“Beauty holds great value to a human soul. All of the wonders of the universe are between the gaze of a viewer and the beauty of starlight.”

“Oh. How fascinating,” says Goro politely, and then leans back in his planetarium chair and wonders if he can smuggle himself out a bathroom window and tell Yusuke that he fell suddenly ill as an escape plan.

Akira, the one and only person that Goro might deign to respect on this asshole of an earth, seems to adore his group of idiot friends, and _especially_ seems to adore the idiot friend named Yusuke Kitagawa. Which, granted, was perhaps an uncharitable estimation--Kitagawa got top marks at Kosei and was already making a name for himself in the art world, so he couldn’t be quite that stupid. Probably.

 _Hopefully_.

Goro checks his watch again. He’d signed up willingly for a whole forty-minute planetarium show that began in five minutes in the hopes of unearthing the mysteries of Akira’s taste in--Akira’s taste in _friends_ , and now it’s looking like that was a forty-minute investment too long. Akira will just be inscrutable as always, and Yusuke will turn out to be not much else interesting beyond his ability to summon a Persona. Goro could be doing homework right now, instead of watching fake lights on a projector. He could be answering emails. He could be scoping out the interior of Sae’s casino again…

“In truth, I’m surprised you agreed to come with me,” says Yusuke suddenly. (What’s that supposed to mean?) “But I’m glad for the company.” (What’s _that_ supposed to mean?) “I come often, but usually alone. Are you, perhaps, a fan of stars yourself?”

“I haven’t thought much about the topic,” says Goro, instead of _I took an astrology quiz once and didn’t appreciate that it called me a two-faced bitch_. “Call me curious about the practice of looking at a light show of simulated stars within a building. If you appreciate stargazing so much, wouldn’t it be better to actually go out and see real stars with your own eyes?”

The obvious answer is because of Tokyo’s light pollution, which blots out any sort of astronomical endeavor whatsoever. The other obvious answer is that the planetarium specializes in showing all sorts of star formations at all times of the year, enabling one to experience the constellations of December in the middle of July.

Instead, Yusuke says, “Why should I do such a thing? Are the real stars worth anything more than the stars in the planetarium?”

Oh? Perhaps this adventure will be enjoyable after all. Goro’s always loved a good debate, or–if he can swing it–a proper argument. “Most people would say that the real version is more valuable,” he replies.

“The real version is quite ugly,” says Yusuke matter-of-factly.

Goro narrows his eyes. “The true form of things tend to be quite ugly.”

“Nonsense. All things are beautiful.”

Goro sits in his chair and stares at the dimmed pre-show lights, and then says: “Excuse me?”

“All things are beautiful,” says Yusuke again, like the logic between these two statements should be patently obvious to Goro.

Goro waits a long moment to see if Yusuke is joking. He isn’t, evidently. “Please explain to me, then, how these two statements exist without conflict with each other.”

Yusuke makes a face. “Conflict?”

“Illogicality. Irrationality. Discrepancy. Dissonance.”

Yusuke is giving him a look like he wishes _Goro_ would translate his perfectly-good words into something that makes sense for _him_. Goro has the increasing sensation that they’re having two entirely different conversations. “Most things that are false represent the truth of things better than the truth can represent itself,” says Yusuke, like this sentence makes _any_ fucking sense at all. “Ah, forgive me. Perhaps a mind so thoroughly wedded to uncover truth from mystery, rather than the creation of truth, cannot comprehend.”

 _Comprehend_? Like Goro’s an annoying little freshman in a senior seminar who doesn’t know what he’s talking about? Oh, does Kitagawa want to _fucking bet_? Is this how it’s going to be? “Try me,” says Goro. “I can be a quick study.”

Yusuke seems rather satisfied by the answer, oddly. “Indeed, I’ve heard from Akira precisely so.” (Wait, Akira talks to Yusuke about Goro? What about? What did he say? He talks about Goro to other people?) “Say that an artist paints an apple,” Yusuke goes on, without any regard _what_ soever for Goro’s increasingly Akira-related questions. “The painting is redder than a real apple, rounder, shinier, more delicious. It is more true to what that apple is to me than a real apple. Or, perhaps, say an artist paints an apple, and it is duller, smaller, more shriveled, and joyless. This, too, might be more true to how the apple is to me than the real apple.”

“So you make a distinction between accuracy and ‘truth’.”

“Certainly. These stars along the inside of this building, for example, are the product of the love of all the scientists and students and projectionists and curators who built and maintain and run this planetarium. They are accurate, but also not--they do not reflect the stars precisely as they are in position to this minute and day, but a vast range of different positions. They are accurately replicated to the point of more beauty. This is what those stars are to them. And that’s what the stars are to me.”

“Oh,” says Goro, with a short laugh. “How naive of you, Kitagawa-kun.”

Yusuke sits up so sharply that the woman next to him jolts. “Excuse you?”

“I don’t mean anything bad by it. It’s rather charming of you,” says Goro with a smile that even he knows is cute. (One of these days, Goro’s going to make a whole Instagram dedicated to every moment he’s smiled cutely on live TV for the sole purpose of irritating someone.) “Beauty is not always a reflection of some higher truth. People use beauty all the time to cover up the unsavory parts of themselves, you know.” Goro glances around to make sure nobody’s looking, then leans in, as if to share a friendly secret: “If you continue with a belief like that, someone with a pretty face and an ugly heart might come along and take advantage of you.”

“Hardly so,” says Yusuke with a sniff. “I’m well aware how disgusting the hearts of certain persons can be, thank you.”

“Oh? Not as naive as you like to pretend?” (Madarame’s palace _had_ been quite a spectacle, that’s for sure. If Kitagawa had seen it, then…)

“I have never said that ugliness does not exist, Akechi-san. I have already said that the real thing does tend to be quite ugly.” Yusuke seems, if anything, rather frustrated–but not with Goro, and it feels less like Goro is winning an argument and more like Yusuke is losing a struggle to explain himself. “I am an artist, not a philosopher. What I know is that the planetarium stars are worth far more than the stars outside, and far more beautiful, besides. Because they’ve been recreated so. They are beautiful _because_ they are not true. Does that not make sense?”

Absolutely not. “You cannot just pick and choose the realities you like. Truth and beauty are not just a thing you can create out of ugly, rotten dirt.”

“Then we must agree to disagree,” says Yusuke coldly, and turns away and speaks not a word until the show begins.

*

They watch the planetarium show in frigid silence. For whatever it’s worth, the stars do look, in fact, frighteningly real.

After the show, they stand with the rest of the crowd and make their way to the front, where they blink in the dim light of the sunset. Yusuke sighs, and turns back to him. “I spoke too harshly,” he says straightforwardly. “Perhaps the fault is mine, as I’ve never quite been good enough to express my thoughts in words, rather than images.”

“It’s quite alright,” says Goro, as if Goro hadn’t sat there for forty minutes alternatively screaming about what might happen if Yusuke went crying to Akira about Goro bullying him over lights in the sky and wondering if Goro could get away with pushing Yusuke directly into as many fire-based spells in the Metaverse the next time they went. “I did… enjoy… the planetarium show.”

Yusuke looks brighter at that, and then dims again. “Well. I’m glad. But I had hoped that perhaps someone as beautiful as yourself would understand what I meant.” And then he checks his phone, and: “Ah, I do need to rush to catch my train. Although this date was a disaster, perhaps the next one won’t be. Hopefully we can meet again.”

“Of course,” says Goro on reflex, and barely manages to wave goodbye as Yusuke gives him a quick smile, hikes up his bag, and jogs in the direction of the station.

Goro lowers his hand. Replays the last half of that conversation.

 _Wait_ a fucking minute.

**Author's Note:**

> twitter [@p5crimes](https://twitter.com/p5crimes)  
> tumblr [@akechicrimes](http://akechicrimes.tumblr.com)


End file.
